Cubs Beat Reds in 14

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By Paul Sullivan, Tribune reporter8:44 p.m. CDT, June 13, 2013

The Cubs ended their homestand this afternoon against Cincinnati, as Jeff Samardzija faced Mat Latos with a stiff, 23 m.p.h. wind blowing in at Wrigley Field.

Julio Borbon’s RBi single in the 14th gave the Cubs a 6-5 win, endind the Reds 12-game win streak at Wrigley.

Samardzija didn’t get crushed, but he allowed 10 hits over six innings and left trailing 5-4. Darwin Barney got Samardzija off the hook with a two-out, RBI single off Sam LeCure in the eighth.

Starlin Castro hit a one-out double in the ninth off J.J. Hoover, and Anthony Rizzo was intentionally walked. But Alfonso Soriano was called out on strikes and Nate Schierholtz lined out to short to end the threat.

They put two on with one out in the 10th, but Scott Hairston took a called third strike and David DeJesus grounded out.

After Soriano’s bloop, RBI single gave the Cubs their first first-inning run since June 4 in Anaheim, the Reds took the lead with a 2-run second. Devin Mesoraco’s RBI single tied it, and Shin-Soo Choo’s run-scoring single made it 2-1.

The Cubs tied it on Welington Castillo’s RBI single in the fourth, but the Reds got back-to-back run-scoring singles in the fifth from Joey Votto and Brandon Phillips. David DeJesus’ fifth inning home run made it 4-3, and both teams scored single runs in the sixth.

The Cubs had lost five of six games on the homestand, and 12 straight games at Wrigley to the Reds.

Were the players aware of this streak?

“Pretty much people read the papers and see and hear it,” manager Dale Sveum said. “I imagine they do.”

Is there any added urgency to end it today?

“Streaks are streaks,” he said. “You come out to win every day. Sometimes streaks do get to the point — and obviously this is one of them — (where) that the added urgency (is there) to win even more.”

Sveum inserted Castro back in the No. 2 hole in hopes of rejuvenating both Castro and the lifeless lineup. As Sveum pointed out, no one in the lineup has been hot of late.